Fetish: The HTC One Mini

The general rule among Android phones the last few years has been, “bigger is better.”

But the winds are changing. Today, HTC announced the HTC One mini, a smaller version of the gorgeous HTC One, itself one of the best-designed phones on the market and a current Wired Top 3 pick.

Compromises had to be made to shrink the 4.7-inch HTC One into the 4.3-inch HTC One Mini (which, by the way, is still bigger than an iPhone 5.) For starters, the screen’s been downgraded from 1080p to 720p. The processor is a dual-core Snapdragon 400, instead of the quad-core inside its big brother. And yes, the battery is smaller in both size and capacity.

But the HTC One Mini retains the beautiful aluminum finish and fantastic build quality that was the primary selling point of the HTC One. Only now it comes in a size that you can actually fit into your jeans. If we’re lucky, this will start a trend among smartphone makers and they’ll realize better doesn’t have to mean bigger.

The phone will be available in August.

The two phones side by side. Note that the One has a red Beats logo on the back, but on the One mini, the same logo is rendered in gray. Also, the alignment of the camera and flash are different. Image courtesy HTC